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Editorial: Former County Judge Valued Community

In late August, Bud Harper contacted the Times Record to ask if we’d be interested in a guest column from him on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The paper gathered reminiscences of the “where were you when you heard?” type from various local folks, but Harper’s story was unique.

As the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, Harper was in Big Sky, Mont., representing Arkansas at the National Emergency Management Association’s annual meeting. Harper was at breakfast with Emergency Management directors from Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi — states in the New Madrid Earthquake Zone — and Joe Albaugh, recently appointed head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In his column, Harper told a little-known story about the 50 heads of state emergency offices gathered at one site with many members of their staffs and important figures from FEMA as one of the largest emergencies the country ever faced unfolded nearly a continent away. But although Harper recounted security decisions and the details of travel, those were not the point of his column.

What stood out to him was the experience that he and his lovely and beloved wife, Jo, had as they drove — remember, planes were grounded — across Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma that “for probably the first time since World War II — America pulled together.”

“It was obvious,” he wrote. “We are Americans above all else. Politics and other differences vanished. We would pull together to overcome these horrible events and do all in our power to prevent them from happening again.”

No one should take that to mean Bud Harper didn’t love a good partisan debate. He surely did, and surely took pride in his successful, eight-term tenure as a Republican county judge and in his appointment by a Republican governor to head a state agency.

But when it came to service, to friendship, to boosting the community, Harper valued people pulling together. He certainly pulled more than his own weight, with lists of organizations served, offices held and honors received too long to repeat here. The list of people who called him friend would be longer than all of those together.

When Bud Harper died unexpectedly Wednesday morning, all of Fort Smith felt the passing. His broad shoulders carried many loads that we must shoulder now. His faith, patriotism, love of family and service to others are the legacy he leaves. The things we do to further his projects are the way we honor his memory.